When an elongate substrate such as a coaxial or telephone or electrical cable is spliced or otherwise terminated and connected to a housing or device, it is necessary to protect the cable connectors including the exposed interior conductors, the connector body and the port or splice to which the connector may be attached or the signal will be adversely affected. More specifically, when a coaxial cable is spliced both the exposed interior of the cable and the connection must be protected from moisture ingress to permit a high quality signal to be transmitted across the spice or transferred to the interior of the splitter box or amplifier or extracted from the splitter or V amplifier.
Within the past several years, gel materials such as silicone gels, polyurethane gels, polyurea gels, thermoplastic elastomer gels such as Kraton.RTM. or Septon.RTM. based polymeric materials and extender oils, and the like have been used to seal elongate substrates. Both of these thermoplastic systems are various configuration of triblock copolymers such as styrene-ethylenebutylene-styrene, styrene-ethylenepropylene-styrene, and mixed midblocked styrene-ethylene-butylene/ethylenepropylene-styrene polymers. The silicones are generally derived from either lightly cross-linked polyorganosilixane materials and/or extended polyorganosilixane materials where the extender is generally of lower molecular weight non-reactive silicone such as a silicone oil or fluid. These gels most effectively seal for reentry when the elongate substrate is sealed under compression and not potted by the gel around the substrate. More specifically, the gel is generally cured apart from at least a portion of the substrate and thereafter brought into contact with the complete substrate and in the preferred embodiments, placed under compression to seal the substrate through either a spring or a restraining the displaced movement of the gel with an enclosure. Suitable examples reciting gels and/or enclosures are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,610,730; 4,909,756; 4,859,809; 4,600,261; 4,634,207; 4,942,270; 4,639,284; 4,595,635; 4,777,063; 4,716,183; and 4,998,894. The complete disclosures of each of these patents are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. Optionally, the gel may be fragmented material as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,058 and/or 5,286,516, the complete disclosures of which are also incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
An earlier hinged gel-filled security and environmental protection device was taught in WO 92/22116 (U.S. Ser. No. 07/712,320 filed Jun. 7, 1991 and a CIP thereof Ser. No. 07/988,050 filed Dec. 7, 1992), the disclosures of these applications are completely incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. Although effective, especially for sealing coaxial cable splices, these devices had a tendency to pop open if dropped and/or oversized connectors were inserted into the device. In addition, it was often considered cumbersome to insert a screwdriver or other splitting means to open the device. Thus, it would be highly desirable to have a manually opening device as well as one which has a tendency to remain closed even if the craftsperson selects a slightly oversized connector to be sealed within the unit.